Day 3 - Wednesday, 27.09.2017

Larissa Becker: Industrial waste waters & cleaning techniques

Program for today was the industrial waste water treatment in Finland. First of all Laura Rahikka, Lecturer of Chemistry & Environmental Technology at Centria University, gave a presentation about this topic and in the afternoon we visited Boliden.

Waste water treatment in Finland
First of all we got some information about Finland’s water reservoir and how the industrial waste water treatment works. Finland has approximately 190.000 lakes and over 670 rivers, that is a very big amount of water to take care of it. The water in most areas of Suomi has excellent quality, only at the coast region there are poorer conditions of the water quality because of industry and agriculture. Phosphor and nitrogen discharges mostly from pulp and paper industry. In addition we heard about a rise of discharge metals in water during the growth of mining industry.

Industrial waste water treatment
In the second part of Laura Rahikka’s presentation, we got an insight into the finnish waste water treatment. Here the legislation defines the limits for industrial waste water and each factory is responsible for its own waste water treatment. It is different to Austria, because companies have usually a waste water treatment system together. Due to that waste water got mixed which is another difference to Finland.
Finally Laura Rahikka told us some facts about the Pyhäsalmi Mine we will visit tomorrow.

Excursion to Boliden
After we had coffee and ate a traditional Korvapussti Anja Lanteri, Environmental manager from Boliden, told us something about the company, their future plans and waste water treatment. The main metals which are extracted and processed by Boliden are zinc and copper. Boliden is the second largest zinc producer in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. However, this company has a pioneer position in the zinc smelting process from environmental point of view. The future plan is to improve their waste water treatment and reduce emission to the sea. Boliden has already reduced its emission so much that you can see differences in the area around the company. Approximately 30 years ago there were no trees around and now the whole area recovers. I was very impressed about this and all in all it was a very interesting day.

Sarah Neukam: Industrial waste waters & cleaning techniques

The last days we got to know a lot about the resources of Finland and energy production. The main topic of that day was the cleaning techniques of waste water. Laura Rahikka, Lecturer in Chemistry & Environmental Technology gave us a good overview about the water treatment in Finland.

Water resources in Finland

Finland has about 190.000 lakes and 620 rivers – 85% of the surface and 65% of the rivers is in good or excellent condition due to legislation. Laws are implemented on aiming to prevent the pollution of groundwater and strict limits are set for industrial waste waters.

Approximately 80% of phosphorus and 70% of nitrogen discharges originate from pulp or paper industry. This is the main challenge for the water treatment in Finland. Principally each factory has to treat its own waste water.

In Finland there are traditional and novel methods to treat the industrial waste waters, one of them is WAO – the wet air oxidation. It is a method with low operating costs and minimal air pollution discharges, but it is limited due to high capital costs and safety implications. For this process high temperature (200-325°C) and pressure (20-210 bar) is needed.

Comparison of water resources: Finland - Austria

In Finland the winters are very cold, therefore I thought it is not that easy for processes to keep everything running. But we got to know that the cold weather and freezing water does not influence the measurements and process work. For me it was quite interesting getting to know how the water treatment in Finland works. It is similar to the Austria system because every industry has strict regulations and rules, too. In contrast to Finland not every industry has its own water treatment plant, commonly a municipal plant exist.

Boliden - zinc production

After lunch we went to Boliden, a company that extracts and processes metals. It is the second largest zinc plant in Europe with 540 employees and an exportation of 85% of their own production. I like it a lot visiting companies and getting to know more facts about their work. The program is very good structured – in the morning we have lectures about environmental issues and in the afternoon we visit companies. This connection is very useful to see where the basic learnings and theoretical issues are applied in industries and we get to know possible places of employment.